Antarctica

Two popular climate skeptic “facts” which are claimed to disprove anthropogenic global warming are:

1. Surface ice melting on Antarctica is decreasing.

2. Sea ice around Antarctica is increasing.

Despite what climate skeptics assert, neither of these arguments disprove global warming. Actually, they highlight quite the contrary: Antarctica is in fact losing mass (ice). Even more, ice is melting and breaking away from the continent at an incredibly accelerating rate.

Atmospheric greenhouse gases are a bit of an abstraction. We can’t see them, we can’t smell them, and we can’t immediately tell when there is a change in concentration.

The site CO2Now is trying to change that by showing current data for atmospheric CO2 and helping people understand the relationship between current trends of rising CO2 levels and the effects of climate change. “The site puts atmospheric CO2 out in front where it needs to be,” says website founder Michael McGee. “It’s a simple thing that no other website is doing. I started posting atmospheric CO2 data in December 2007 when I realized it was a way I could add value to the climate conversation.”

The site also helps explain the factors that effect climate, the relationship between climate and weather and the effects of climate change like ocean acidification and reductions in global land ice. “Atmospheric CO2 is a big picture metric that hardly gets talked about outside of scientific circles,” adds McGee. “CO2Now.org was created so anyone on the internet can see the changes in the atmosphere as they happen. It presents the trend information so people can see whether or not we are doing enough to end global warming.”

These fish-eating Killer Whales rely on the ice where fish bunch up in schools in order to evade predators. Scientists are anticipating that as the ice patterns in the Antarctic continue to be altered by climate change, the Killer Whales may not be able to adapt to their new hunting grounds.

While not much life exists on the icy surface of the Antarctic, life is teaming undersea and scientists are now worried that more frequent icebergs could pose a real threat to these underwater inhabitants.

For someone who has experienced “freaky weather” in the Antarctic up close and personal, reports this week that baby Antarctic penguins are freezing to death due to “freak rain storms,” came as no surprise.

The sad truth is there's been a lot of freaky things happening in the Antarctic lately.

“Wilkins Ice Shelf is the most recent in a long, and growing, list of ice shelves on the Antarctic Peninsula that are responding to the rapid warming that has occurred in this area over the last fifty years.” [my emphasis]

Prof. David Vaughan of the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) said: “Wilkins Ice Shelf is the most recent in a long, and growing, list of ice shelves on the Antarctic Peninsula that are responding to the rapid warming that has occurred in this area over the last fifty years.

Democracy is utterly dependent upon an electorate that is accurately informed. In promoting climate change denial (and often denying their responsibility for doing so) industry has done more than endanger the environment. It has undermined democracy.

There is a vast difference between putting forth a point of view, honestly held, and intentionally sowing the seeds of confusion. Free speech does not include the right to deceive. Deception is not a point of view. And the right to disagree does not include a right to intentionally subvert the public awareness.